Letters

Point Taken

I just finished reviewing the article “Why We Love Cincy” in the Aug./Sept. ’09 issue. At least two persons quoted in the article said they liked Cincinnati because of its “diversity.” Well, a reader would never know that Cincinnati had ANY diversity whatsoever based upon the content of the piece. All photos were of white people (with one exception in a group shot) and, to my knowledge, you did not print quotes from a single resident of color. However, you were able to find space for the inclusion of comments from Alexis de Toqueville and Winston Churchill, neither of whom ever deigned to reside here. Do you realize how provincial and backward these editorial decisions make your publication appear? The absence from the article of any area residents or visitors that didn’t conform to your preconceived demographic was so consistent and pervasive that it could only have been an intentional omission, or at best, a grossly negligent one. Indeed there are many local residents who DON’T “love Cincy” because they are tired of being discounted and demeaned in the local media, including your magazine. Cincy Magazine is allegedly a publication for “business professionals.” If so, then you should know that there are true professionals in this region of ALL persuasions. Your article conveyed the express impression that we are invisible. If that is your belief, then your claim to be the magazine for professionals is hollow and false.

Carolyn F. Glosby , Attorney at Law, LLC Mason, OH

Love Cincy

The quote on p.47 of the Aug/Sept edition “Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have - Cincinnati sounds worse,” is incorrectly attributed to “Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.” The quote is from the Justice’s father. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94) was sometimes known as “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” because of a series of essays of the same name published in 1857-58. He was a physician, professor, lecturer and author — and a contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell. His son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), was the lawyer and Supreme Court Justice.

Judge Mark Painter, Court of AppealsOff With His Head

Felix Winternitz’s article on page 75 (“Newspapers R.I.P.?” August/September) has an error. He attributes the term “fourth estate” to the nation’s founders. It came on the floor of the French Estates General at the beginning of the Revolution (1789). A speaker looked at the balcony where reporters were seated and call them “the fourth estate.” First estate: Nobility; Second estate: Clergy; Third estate: Bourgousie. The Estates General was later reformed into the French National Assembly.

Yours in history, Dan Griffith

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